Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive And Mobility Two major auto OEMs revealed new electric vehicle models this week. The Audi Q8 e-tron has 40 driver assistance systems including five radar sensors, five cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, and comes with either an 89 net kilowatt-hour battery or a 106 net kilowatt-hour battery. It arrives in the U.S. in April 2023. The Volvo EX90 contains both lidar and 5G connectivit... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Chip design Fraunhofer IIS/EAS implemented the Bunch of Wires (BoW) standard-based interface IP from the Open Compute Project (OCP) on Samsung's 5nm technology. The effort is intended to make chiplets more feasible for products with small and medium-sized production runs and determine the need for additional uniform standards in the future, such as for die-to-die bonding. “As part of t... » read more

Startup Funding: October 2022


Investors poured $3.5 billion into 113 startup companies in October 2022, especially new battery technology, AI hardware, and faster memory access. Battery technology dominated the fundraising in October thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy and four funding rounds that exceeded $200M. The DOE awarded sizeable grants to help 20 companies, including six startups, build out battery material ... » read more

The New Disruptive Force In High-End AIoT Markets


MediaTek is known for its SoC solutions in the mobile and consumer device markets. In fact, the smartphone market is now producing the most advanced and performant SoC designs on the planet. MediaTek is a vital part of this innovation. Each year it produces a range of chipsets for the mobile market, like the flagship Dimensity 9000 which adopted Arm’s v9 CPU and Mali-GPU technologies to del... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Highlights from ITC The hot topic at this week’s International Test Conference (ITC) was tackling silent data corruption, with panel discussions, papers, and Google’s Parthasarathy Ranganathan’s keynote address all emphasizing the urgency of the issue. In the past two years Meta, Google, and Microsoft have reported on silent errors, errors not detected at test, which are adversely impact... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


On Sunday, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southeast region of Taiwan, causing devastation. TSMC officials reported “no known significant impact for now.” Market research firm TrendForce arrived at a similar conclusion based on its analysis of individual fabs. The Biden administration announced appointment of the leadership team charged with implementing the US CHIPS and Science Ac... » read more

Challenges Mount In New Autos


Electronics are becoming the primary differentiator for carmakers, adding an array of options that can alter everything from how a vehicle's occupants interact with their surroundings to how the vehicle drives. But the infrastructure needed to support these features also raises a slew of technology and business questions for which there are no simple answers today. For example, how will new ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued new export controls on EDA software aimed at designing gate-all-around FETs, which manufacturers plan to implement starting at 3nm (Samsung) and 2nm (Intel and TSMC). Specifically, the ruling controls export of software that is specially designed for implementing RTL to GDSII (or an equivalent standard) for GAA FET desi... » read more

Week in Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive and Mobility Lyft launched a new robotaxi service that operates on and around the Las Vegas Strip using the electric Ioniq 5 vehicle from Motional. Similar services by other companies are currently in use in a handful of other U.S. cities, including San Francisco and Phoenix. The new Lyft service currently requires the presence of safety drivers, though Lyft and Motional say it will... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


The U.S. Congress approved the CHIPS Act, a mammoth bipartisan achievement the New York Times called “the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades.” As passed, the full package — now called the Chips and Science Act — contains $52 billion in direct assistance for the semiconductor industry, along with $24 billion in tax incentives. In addition, the bill c... » read more

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